How scientists linked
smoking to health
Biology Project
Hawwa Muhammed
Smoking for your health
Whether smoked or chewed, tobacco is dangerous to your health. Tobacco products contain
unsafe substances, from acetone and tar to nicotine and carbon monoxide. The inhaled
substances can affect your lungs and the other organs in your body.
Smoking can lead to ongoing complications and long-term effects on your body systems.
While smoking can increase your risk of certain health conditions over years, like glaucoma,
cancer, and issues with blood clotting, some of the bodily effects happen immediately.
Smoking can cause long-term negative effects on the
body, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes
Whether smoked or chewed, tobacco is dangerous to your health. Tobacco products contain
unsafe substances, from acetone and tar to nicotine and carbon monoxide. The inhaled
substances can affect your lungs and the other organs in your body.
Smoking can lead to ongoing complications and long-term effects on your body systems.
While smoking can increase your risk of certain health conditions over years, like glaucoma,
cancer, and issues with blood clotting, some of the bodily effects happen immediately.
Tobacco smoke is incredibly harmful to your health. There’s no safe way to smoke. Replacing
your cigarette with a cigar, pipe, e-cigarette, or hookah won’t help you avoid the health risks.
According to the American Lung Association, cigarettes contain about 600 ingredients. Many
of these ingredients are also in cigars and hookahs. When they burn, they generate more than
7,000 chemicals, many of which are toxic. At least 69 of them are carcinogenic, or known to
cause cancer.
In the United States, the mortality rate for smokers is three times thatTrusted Source of people
who never smoked. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) note that
smoking is the most common Trusted Source preventable cause of death in the United States.
While not all the effects of smoking are immediate, the complications and damage can last for
years.
Central nervous system
One of the ingredients in tobacco is the mood-altering drug nicotine. Nicotine is habit-
forming and highly addictive. It is one reason why people find it so difficult to quit
smoking.
Nicotine reaches your brain in seconds and can energize you for a while. But as the
effect wears off, you may feel tired and crave more. Physical withdrawal from nicotine
can impair your ability to think and make you feel negative emotions. These may
include:
anxiety
irritability
depression
Takeaway
Smoking cigarettes increases your risk for health conditions that can affect the whole body.
Smoking can cause cancer in many of the body’s organs. It can also reduce fertility, increase
the chance of
developing type 2 diabetes, and contribute to bone loss.
But quitting smoking reduces many of these risks. It also has both short and long-term
benefits. Since smoking affects every body system, finding a way to quit can help you live a
longer and healthier life.
Smoking cessation programs may help. Doctors may also recommend prescription and
nonprescription medications to help you quit.